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Sunday, February 24, 2008

Please allow me some pimpin' time, as Zorro is a Pulp hero, actually one of the first pulp heroes, no doubt about that :)The first issue of the new Zorro series by Dynamite just came out this week: it's written by the Maestro Matt Wagner and illustrated by truly yours Francesco. If you have picked it up or you plan to, feel free to hit me back with comments, compliments, or insults: I take everything ;)

Before getting to the today business, let me apologize for the missing episode of last Sunday: sadly I was incapacitated to do anything 'cause of a bad flu. I haven’t been sick in years and I forgot how bad it feels to have aches all over the body, high fever, and a throat on fire. Thankfully the classic old remedies (plenty of fluids and rest) and the love of my better half helped me to get through this and get back in shape :)To make up for the missing episode, I will have a double feature sometime soon, so it's all good :)

While every common mortal uses to go do picnic in some nice place (a park, on the lake, etc), our dynamic duo, Lamont & Margot have the better idea to spend a weekend in a real ghost town. The town, Bed Creek, once center of activities for many gold miners working in the close mines, has bee abandoned for more than half century as it happened to many of these towns where the people move on to a different place after the mines get dry. The owner of the only hotel still running in town tells to our duo that the ghosts of Bed Creek are real indeed and there is no joking about. Lamont and Margot will soon discover that they are real aright, but not so ghostly after all...Cool and straight forward little story that I hope you guys enjoy :)

Sunday, February 10, 2008

this month spotlight is for one of the greatest (comicbook) writers of our times: Alan Moore. He is the genius mind behind so many milestones of the sequential literature (From Hell, V for Vendetta, Watchmen to name a few) but he is also the creator of the Pulp series of the Greyshirt, Cobweb, and Tom Strong, all published in the anthological books "Tomorrow Stories" for America's Best Comics line (Wildstorm). If you haven't read these series yet, then do yourself a favor and try to find the back issues: thay are perfect gems for Pulp lovers like us.

Greyshirt is a clear tribute to the Spirit even if he likes to wear scarf and hat like the Shadow. To make it more classy, he also wears a tie and carries a nice cane. The man behind Greyshirt is Frank Lafayette, a former gangster turned vigilante after an explosion deformed his face and made everyone think he was dead. The art chores were held by Rick Veitch, who sapiently recreates the jungle of back-alleys and cement and asphalt seen in many stories of the Spirit.

Cobweb is the clasic femme fatale (and lethal), whose erotic power is enhanced by the fact that she wears see-through purple nighty and (seemingly) no panties. To make all this more hot, she has an assistant in a chauffeur's outfit (like Kato in Green Hornet!!!) who is also her lesbian lover. The art for the series is supplied by artist (and Alan's wife) Melinda Gebbie, who used her feminist erotica style to depict the strange adventures of this domino-masked heroine. The cool thing is that Melinda was using different approaches in each stories, making all of them visually entertaining.

We will talk later of the other pulp heroes created by Alan Moore and Co. for ABC. Meanwhile hope you guys enjoy my tributes to these series and have a great Pulp Sunday.

Cheers,Francesco

P.S. Since I have been out all the weekend for a convention, I had to use some previously drawn art ;) (as you can tell from the dates) I hope that's cool with you and you enjoy them regardless :P

Pulp Spotlight is the new monthly feature where I will cover other famous characters that have helped to build the Pulp genre not just on the radio but also in the other media.

Sunday, February 3, 2008

After the little break with the Green Hornet (who will be back soon), we are back with the classic radio episodes of the Shadow.This week episode starts in a prison, where an inmate, Marty, is trying to convince another one, Paul, that they need to break out of the place to get revenge on the judge that put them both there. A tiny important detail is that the judge is Paul's uncle and even if Martin is insisting that the judge framed his own nephew to put him away, Paul doesn't believe to that and he is willing, after 4 years already spent in jail, to do the remaining 2 years he has been sentenced to. Marty keeps insisting that Paul's uncle is evil and he is pushing Paul's beloved girlfriend to marry Paul's stepbrother. That makes it! Now Paul is decided to break out of the prison with Marty, but when Marty kills a guard during the attempt, he changes his mind. Weirdly enough Marty knocks him out and succeed in the plan carrying Paul on his shoulders. That's the part I found strange: why does Marty insists to have Paul out of the prison? Well, the answer is in the episode (which I am not going to spoil ;) - Check the link below and you'll find out).

A very minutiosly planned and brilliantly executed murder, with the life of Lamont at risk and with Margo stepping in into the Shadow investigative operation, this episode has it all, including a recorder which turns out to be a key element to solve the case. The episode has been recorded in 1942, so just for the fun of it, above you can see what the common household recorder looked like at that time (this is from a 1942 catalogue). I LOVE the claim under the highlighted box: A complete Recordio lab in smart airplane portable cases! You gotta love that "small size, portable" vintage technology ;)